Even if your latest page is filled with the most impressive content on the internet this does not guarantee that your visitors will find you. Your website needs to have a constant stream of interesting information and new pages being added, to encourage people to find you on search engines and then ultimately click on you. You then want them to stay on your website, have a good look around and then hopefully click on a call to action. Whether it is to buy something, download a pdf or maybe get in contact. This is why we are writing this article to discuss why landing pages are so important, so you can see the benefits of creating lots of them!
So how do you do this?
More and more, the experts are saying that “Content is King”. A good user experience is also vital to ensure that your prospective customers stay on your website for longer than one second! Keep them there, reading your information, clicking to new pages and then ultimately hopefully converting to new customers. This is why landing pages are so important, to grow your business and keep it growing.
Show them you are an expert in your field.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is literally that – the page a customer “lands” on when they are possibly searching for you. So creating lots of nice well written landing pages will help get you visible online for so many more search terms. As well as this, it gives search engines something new to crawl through. You mustn’t just publish your website and then hope it gets lots of visitors. It is a constant work in progress and will never be finished! You must consistently create new content, either by blogging, social media or by creating new landing pages.
And if, once you have finished reading about why landing pages are so important and still don’t agree, then we would love to hear from you!
Always write your own text – don’t ever pinch it from somewhere else! List out all the long-tailed keywords in a spreadsheet or document, questions or long sentences that someone may be searching for online when they are looking for your products or services. List them out and then start work on writing them.
Not all landing pages have to be in your main menu either; keep the most important ones for that; your services, your products, About you etc. Then you need to start thinking about other search terms that someone may type in when they are looking for your type of company. Do your research. Look online, maybe see what other competitors are doing, for inspiration, then always go one better.
Determining What KeyWords to use in your landing pages
Don’t try and compete with the big boys. Unless you are Amazon then you probably won’t get above another giant website. This is why “long-tailed keywords are really effective for landing pages.
For example, if we were a car hire based in London we may try to rank for Car Rental in London as opposed to just ‘Car Rental.’ There are around 4,500,000,000 results for just ‘Car Rental’ in comparison to the around 64,600,000 for ‘Car Rental in London.’ This, however, is still an incredibly high number so making it even more specific might be necessary to rank more effectively. ‘Car rental in Clapham’ for instance only produces 7,440,000 results which is a far more achievable result.
Link them up!
Once you have created your new pages then they need to be linked somewhere on your website. You don’t just want new pages published, but floating around doing nothing. Read through your main pages and see where you can add in perhaps a summary of your new landing page and then link to it through there. It may be a word or a sentence… or you may decide to write a short snippet about the page and then link it through that way. Don’t leave it hanging!
And always make sure your new pages are top of their game for search engine optimisation. Make sure the Header is the same as the URL, the SEO title and the Meta description. Once you know what your page is about, be specific and just write about that, then all this will make it easier to rank. Also, try and include another relevant search term for that page in a Header 2 – this helps with SEO as well. Keep each specific landing page about the one subject and then if you start to go off course, create another landing page!
Include Key Words in your content to enhance your SEO
The main term you are marketing your landing page for needs to be placed within your text. Bear in mind that some places are proven to be more effective than others so dropping them anywhere isn’t as helpful as you might think. For example, the first paragraph is the most influential place as it is telling Google what your page is about. Having your keywords stuffed into every other sentence is seen as ‘spammy’ so make sure it all reads well and if you can drop your keywords in effectively, then that is the perfect solution.
Then try and summarise your page in the last paragraph and include your keyword term there as well. It rounds off the page and tells Google what you have been talking about.
Length of your Landing Page
length is not as important as you might have been told. Data has shown that long content ranks highly in search engine results. However, this may be more down to the quality of the content and less to the actual length. The fact that not all long-form content is ranked highest on search pages means that there is always something else at play. Which are all the other factors that help a page to rank well.
Longer pages tend to be better researched and more shareable because of it. This attracts more readers and makes Google think that the page should be higher ranked. Essentially, if your content isn’t long enough the user experience is poor and Google doesn’t like this!
Update Accordingly
Like with all things, time will affect your content. Eventually, it will become obsolete. As new information becomes available and new things begin to trend, certain keywords will be affected accordingly. Perhaps the topic you talked about has become less popular and therefore nobody is looking for what you want to say.
We recommend that you assess important content at least once a year. Especially when the content discusses industry trends or analysis.
Get in Contact
Here at Sokada, we design websites that enhance SEO and improve the user experience. However, from the looks of things we seem to be in the minority. We also encourage our customers to write lots of landing pages, to attract new customers and ensure they are being found for as many search terms as possible. This is why we promote to all our clients “why are landing pages useful”.
If you’re interested in having a bespoke website that will focus on marketing and also appeal to the user, then get in contact with us on 01435 817 226 or drop us an email at enquiries@sokada.co.uk. Alternatively, fill out our short contact form here and someone will get back to you asap.
Once you have finished reading about why landing pages are so important and still don’t agree, then we would love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading!